China rushes relief after Sichuan quake kills 186

Ren Shuyong, 48, cries as she sits outside near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Ren Shuyong, 48, cries as she sits outside near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a local resident bicycles in front of collapsed houses after an earthquake struck in Lushan County, Ya'an City, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Jin Xiaoming) NO SALES— AP

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a local resident bicycles in front of collapsed houses after an earthquake struck in Lushan County, Ya'an City, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Jin Xiaoming) NO SALES
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In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, rescuers carry out an elderly paralyzed person from a collapsed house after an earthquake struck, in Qingren Township, Lushan County, Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Le Xiaoxuan) NO SALES— AP

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, rescuers carry out an elderly paralyzed person from a collapsed house after an earthquake struck, in Qingren Township, Lushan County, Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Le Xiaoxuan) NO SALES
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Residents rest near tents set up for evacuees of Saturday's earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

Residents rest near tents set up for evacuees of Saturday's earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Residents sleep outdoors near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

Residents sleep outdoors near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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A portrait of Mao Zedong near writing commemorating Chinese ancestors is displayed on a wall damaged by Saturday's earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province left at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

A portrait of Mao Zedong near writing commemorating Chinese ancestors is displayed on a wall damaged by Saturday's earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province left at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Residents pack away bedding after sleeping in an outdoor shelter near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

Residents pack away bedding after sleeping in an outdoor shelter near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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An elderly woman rests on a makeshift bed setup outdoors near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

An elderly woman rests on a makeshift bed setup outdoors near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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Zheng Xianlan, a 58-year-old corn farmer, awakens after spending the night sleeping on a sofa outside her house which was damaged by an earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Ph— AP

Zheng Xianlan, a 58-year-old corn farmer, awakens after spending the night sleeping on a sofa outside her house which was damaged by an earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Ph
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A woman walks past tiles shaken from roof tops by an earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

A woman walks past tiles shaken from roof tops by an earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in the town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
/ AP

LUSHAN, China 
Luo Shiqiang sat near chunks of concrete, bricks and a ripped orange sofa and told how his grandfather was just returning from feeding chickens when their house collapsed and crushed him to death in this weekend's powerful earthquake in southwestern China.

"We lost everything in such a short time," the 20-year-old college student said Sunday. He said his cousin also was injured in the collapse, but that other members of his family were spared because they were out working in the fields of hard-hit Longmen village in Lushan county.

Saturday's earthquake in Sichuan province killed at least 186 people, injured more than 11,000 and left nearly two dozen missing, mostly in the rural communities around Ya'an city, along the same fault line where a devastating quake to the north killed more than 90,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring areas five years ago in one of China's worst natural disasters.

The Lushan and Baoxing counties hardest-hit on Saturday had escaped the worst of the damage in the 2008 quake, and residents there said they benefited little from the region's rebuilding after the disaster, with no special reinforcements made or new evacuation procedures introduced in their remote communities.

Luo said he wished more had been done to make his community's buildings quake-resistant. "Maybe the country's leaders really wanted to help us, but when it comes to the lower levels the officials don't carry it out," he said.

Relief teams flew in helicopters and dynamited through landslides Sunday to reach some of the most isolated communities, where rescuers in orange overalls led sniffer dogs through piles of brick, concrete and wood debris to search for survivors.

Many residents complained that although emergency teams were quick to carry away bodies and search for survivors, they had so far done little to distribute aid. "No water, no shelter," read a hand-written sign held up by children on a roadside in Longmen.

"I was working in the field when I heard the explosions of the earthquake, and I turned around and saw my house simply flatten in front of me," said Fu Qiuyue, a 70-year-old rapeseed farmer in Longmen.

Fu sat with her husband, Ren Dehua, in a makeshift shelter of logs and a plastic sheet on a patch of grass near where a helicopter had parked to reach their community of terraced grain and vegetable fields. She said the collapse of the house had crushed eight pigs to death. "It was the scariest sound I have ever heard," she said.

The quake - measured by China's earthquake administration at magnitude 7.0 and by the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.

The quake killed at least 186 people, left 21 missing and injured 11,393, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the provincial emergency command center as saying.